In a peculiar turn of events, Amazon has made ViewSonic’s upcoming ViewPad 7 tablet available for pre-order. No, that’s not the peculiar part. Amazon — an online retailer known for retail prices so low that countless brick and mortar retailers have been forced out of business — is charging $120 over MSRP for the upcoming Android tablet. ViewSonic took the wraps off its ViewPad 7 tablet earlier this month and when it did, pricing was set at $479. $479 is already steep for the tiny Android 2.2-powered tablet, and Amazon currently has it listed at $599. A 7-inch touchscreen display, cellular data connectivity with support for voice calling, a 3-megapixel rear camera, a 0.3-megapixel front camera for video chat, 512MB of RAM, microSDHC support (up to 32GB) and up to 10 hours of battery life all sound great, but definitely not great enough to warrant $120 above retail. The ViewSonic ViewPad 7 is set to launch some time before the end of the year. More →

ViewSonic unveiled two new tablets on Monday, including a unique offering that runs both Android and Windows 7. The ViewPad 10 is a dual-boot tablet capable of running both Android 1.6 and Windows 7 Home Premium. It features a 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD drive, microSDHC support (up to 32GB), a 1.3-megapixel webcam and a 10-inch 1024 x 600-pixel LED backlit multitouch display. ViewSonic’s upcoming 10-inch tablet will ship with both operating systems pre-installed along with Microsoft Office, Adobe Flash support and videoconferencing software. The smaller ViewPad 7 opts for Android 2.2 in place of the 10’s dual-boot setup, and it features cellular data connectivity (HSPA), a 3-megapixel rear camera, a 0.3-megapixel front camera for video chat, 512MB of RAM, microSDHC support (up to 32GB), up to 10 hours of battery life and a 7-inch WVGA LCD touchscreen display. The ViewPad 7 will launch before the end of the year for $479 while the ViewPad 10 will be available some time in Q1 2011 for $629. Hit the break for the full press release. More →